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Two New Linux Phones to Ship in Japan

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the let-the-penguin-do-the-talking dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Japan's largest mobile carrier has announced two new Linux phones with support for push-to-talk, multiple numbers, and other advanced features. Of the six models models in NTT DoCoMo's new 902i-series, the two running embedded Linux are made by NEC and Panasonic, who have been collaborating on a Linux-based software platform for 3G mobile phones. The NEC-manufactured N902i boasts a four megapixel camera, while the Panasonic-made P902i aims to appeal to music lovers, with music jukebox software and an available 1GB MiniSD card. Between these and Motorola's Linux mobile phones, Linux seems to be doing well in Asia, in the rapidly growing feature-phone space, which is projected to comprise the majority of global mobile phone shipments by 2010."

9 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Push to talk? by rathehun · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, India for one. The large phone companies - Hutchisson, Orange and Airtel all provide Push-to-talk.

  2. Re:Push to talk? by m_member · · Score: 3, Informative

    They are closed, proprietary protocols. The future of PTT is PoC/PAG as defined by the OMA.

    PoC - Push to Talk Over Cellular
    PAG - Presence & Group Management
    OMA - Open Mobile Alliance

    TLA overload :-S

  3. Push-to-talk by myspys · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering what this is, so help yourselves:

    Push to walk at Wikipedia.

    1. Re:Push-to-talk by Myself · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a giant leap backward in communications. Half-duplex means there's no way to interrupt a rag-chewer. You know the old comedian's line "stop me if you've heard this one"? Sabotaged by PTT!

      I hate not being able to hear the listener's reactions as I'm talking. No sigh, no laugh, no "what?", leaves me without crucial tidbits of information that are so essential to human communication.

      Furthermore, PTT doesn't include a way to leave a message if the victim doesn't answer. Most implementations even use a separate numbering space, so knowing someone's phone number doesn't tell you their PTT number, and vice versa.

      What's ironic is that the original motivation behind PTT (the benefits of statistical multiplexing) doesn't even hold true anymore, because cellphone codecs are so good at compressing the quiet side of a conversation, you get almost the same efficiency with a full-duplex call as you do with the horrible PTT.

      The typical implementation of PTT as speakerphone is just poor etiquette on the seller's part. It works the same with the regular earpiece instead of the loudspeaker, but holding the phone is infinitely more awkward because you have to press the damn button.

  4. Market Share by putko · · Score: 2, Informative

    Symbian is the dominant OS. Linux is second.
    Something Called "Windows" is in there too.
    Here is the article

    I'm confused though -- are the Symbian phones not feature rich compared to Linux? I figured that was the whole point; it has better phone features (power management?). I'm guessing that the article is trumpeting Linux's success when it isn't exactly warranted (but at least it is kicking Windows ass).

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    1. Re:Market Share by LaughingCoder · · Score: 3, Informative

      Having done cellphone development for quite a few years, I can attest to the difficulty in developing for Symbian. The tools are buggy, and no 2 Symbian phones are the same - we had a different executable for each and every model. The Microsoft phones were much better to develop for. The tools were free and quite good. And we ran the same executable on every Microsoft-based phone, including both Smartphones (non-stylus button phones) and Pocket PC derivatives (stylus/touch screen). Further, we had the luxury of building and testing the exact same source tree on the desktop, which really accelerated development.

      All of that said, I think Linux could pretty quickly dominate the mobile space. I have done some embedded Linux development and it has many of the attributes of the Microsoft environment (good tools, lots of "sample" code, ability to do parallel desktop builds). And since Linux has a much smaller footprint the phones can be cheaper, which will help with adoption. Now hopefully the phone vendors will standardize on a common API so the poor application developers don't have to create a separate install package for every model. Unfortunately, past history is not very encouraging in this regard.

      --
      The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
  5. Re:Push to talk? by bazorg · · Score: 2, Informative

    All 3 mobile telecoms here in Portugal do. Every now and then they make TV ads with real life situations where they imagine people would use it.

  6. Re:All I care about is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    How much will it $ave me?

    I'm guessing nothing. The appeal for manufacturers is how much it will save them.

  7. Re:Push to talk? by torpor · · Score: 2, Informative


    its useful for when you don't need to have a full-blown fire-up/tear-down conversation, and only need to use the cell phone to provide info/updates.

    its good for taxi companies, for example; they just outfit their cabbies with cell phones with this feature, and one of their traditionally biggest expenses [airtime] is now cheap as pie.

    i for one welcome these new 'communication modes' that our machines are forcing upon us. maybe we'll all get along.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --